A FORMER Celtic striker has offered his support to Paul Gascoigne after it emerged he had fallen after drinking.
The comments came after pictures emerged over the weekend of Gascoigne looking bloodied and bruised, with cuts on his forehead and face.
The former footballer has battled alcohol problems since his retirement from the game 12 years ago.
John Hartson, 40, was among other who has reached out to Gascoigne, known to many as Gazza, after the pictures were published in The Sun newspaper.
Hartson has said previously that his own diagnosis with cancer in his 30s was the turning point to face his own gambling addictions and personal problems.
He wrote: "Terribly sad to see Paul Gascoigne struggling to beat his demons that unfortunately will haunt him forever. Stay strong and focused Gazza."
Ex-England footballer Kenny Sanson tweeted: "There's lots of alcoholism sufferers. Only one Paul Gascoigne. He should be remembered for his football. Hang in there ledge."
Rangers star Gascoigne, 48, has been at home in Poole recovering after his management confirmed that he had fallen down after drinking and was picked up by police and was taken to hospital.
Manager Terry Baker told the Sun on Sunday: "Paul has had a bad week... He went home where he is recovering. He told me he's been working out and getting stronger and he is determined to get back on track."
His agent, Freda Baker, added: "He's had a blip. He's certainly better now."
The 48-year-old footballer, who also played for England, said he suffered from alcohol dependency over a number of years and also had treatment for drug use and addiction to the energy drink, Red Bull.
Last year he was awarded £188,250 in damages from Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for phone-hacking. He said the constant media pressure had made it difficult to for him to lead a normal and private life.
He was also recently fined and made subject to a restraining order after he pleaded guilty to sending a series of abusive tweets, phone calls and messages to an ex-girlfriend.
Gascoigne admitted harassing Amanda Thomas, his girlfriend of five years, during a two-week period in last March following their split.
The couple met after Gascoigne moved to the Bournemouth area where he underwent rehab treatment for his alcoholism.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel